Friday Morning in China 7/28/06

It is 6:30 in the morning in China... All three kids are still sleeping. Today we have nothing planned until the evening when we will go to the local opera. It is nice to have a day to just kick back and snooze, play and what not.

Julia has come out of her shell and what we see is a 2 year old Chinese Tornado. She is BUSY. She comes from a foster family with two older people and two young women and no other children. She is accustomed to the spoiled attention of those around her and figures that is why we are here. Last night she ate noodles ... she would insist that one of us hold her noodles, she would cuise by and take a bite... head off to play with the phone or remote or read a book... cruise back by for another bite. She tells us when she wants a drink or food or pretty much anything else. She points and says "numnumnunono" and we say "this?" and she says either "nuhuh" or "mumhum" and we know. She is a hoot.

It is actually pretty funny to watch her walk -- I will try to get some pics of her with the boys today. She is SO LITTLE that it looks like a mistake to see her moving. I was laying next to her in bed this morning and thinking back-- I think she may be a wee bit taller but is the same weight the boys were at 4-6 months. I would love to measure her head, chest, etc as I think they are probably equal to the boys at about 2-6 months of age. I will compare her hands to the hand prints I have from the boys when they were born -- they are close. She is just a teeny little bug. A large mission of mine will be to get some good solid power packed nutrition. So far that will be a challenge. She wont drink formula, milk, chinese strawberry milk.... she wont eat anything but bread, noodles, cherrios, and one boiled egg. She takes her veggies out of her cup a noodles and either throws them on the floor or hands them to me with clear directions to get those things outta her food!

I wonder if I would be a little skinny thing If I took on the two year old diet -- eat one noodle, climb up and down off of something taller than you 4 times. Eat another noodle. Fall on the floor and pick yourself up twice. Eat two cherrios. Run around and yell a bit. Drink a sip of water. Drink a sip of mil -- spit it out. Repeat.

Thanks to everyone for the notes and well wishes -- we feel loved here. I am sure we will have some more pics for you all either later tonight your time or in the morning for you. By the way -- time change has been no issue for any of us. It is really weird. I think that the boys and I have such random sleep in the summer that it did not really hit us. The return flight we leave here ar night and get home the equivelant of 2 hours later. I figure that we will sleep and when we get home have a nap and be good to go. So far... we are all healthy and that is one thing I am seriously praying for. I can not afford to get sick. We have decided to forgo much in the way of experimental eating -- we just cant afford to have something disagree with any of us on this trip. We brought a ton of snack and such ... I am really glad.

Better get a shower and get ready to start our day here. Love to you all.
Jackie